I previously wrote an article about
the 25
year anniversary of the IBM PC and how this brought something
revolutionary to the mainstream. However, for the enthusiast,
this
article about the ZX Spectrum is probably easier to relate to, whether you
actually owned a ZX Spectrum or perhaps another early 8-bit home computer such
as a
Commodore64
or
Atari
8-bit. I remember one of my early computer interfacing
projects was in fact using Qbasic under DOS on a 286 PC - to control an
SPO256
speech synth. Although, I owned a Commodore64 a long time before
that and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to interface various electronics such
as robot arms to it in my younger years.

Like many robot enthusiasts I've often built my own
mechanical hardware for robotics projects. My original intention with
robotics as an adult was to become a better programmer, but for a long time
I've been stuck trying to
build
a reliable robot to program, rather than concentrating on making it do
anything vaguely intelligent.

However, for the first time about a week ago I sat down with the
914
.NET components, read through the sample code and had a serious go with
C#
.NET 2005 Express. I've previously programmed mostly in
Python
which I still intend to do for my 914, however I'd really like to be able to
do this under Windows as well as Linux. The task I set myself therefore, is to
write an interface to Python using the .NET controls - which will
likely be in the form of a sockets server I can attach to from
a Python script, or any programming language that supports sockets.

From a personal learning point of view, of course it's much easier to
learn to program a robot if you have one that's ready built to commercial
quality standards, rather than having to build the hardware yourself first.
This is particularly relevant for
research
projects where the focus is on software rather than hardware.

There are of course many people out there who are already programmers in
various languages, particularly in .NET, but the majority of them have
probably not programmed robots before. In the same way that the ZX
Spectrum brought accessibility for people to learn programming and
general computer skills all those years ago, accessibility to
affordable robots running familiar operating systems provides a tipping
point towards mainstream robotics, utilizing skills sets that are already
out there. From a personal point of view, that other 914 owners can
probably relate to, having a 914 is incredibly
motivating towards spending time making it do something - mainly it's an
amazing thing to see in real life, photos just don't do it justice.

Now, I know that the ZX Spectrum was a lot cheaper than the 914, and I've
heard various opinions that the 914 is 'too expensive for enthusiasts'.
However, let's consider what an enthusiast is. My friend is a
Harley
Davidson enthusiast, needless to say his Harley cost him far more
than the price of a 914. Consider the classic car enthusiasts, musicians,
or even mountain bikers - all of these things which are mostly people's
hobbies can cost a small fortune to do, often just for the
weekends. These are serious enthusiasts and as such don't mind
spending serious money on what they enjoy. I'm a member of the
DeLorean
owners club, but I don't actually own a DeLorean - so if you really
can't run to buying your own 914, then of course you can still be an
enthusiast - it's a revolution!.